By Brendon Moo, Head of Strategic Engagement and Communications
Bringing NATA’s Accreditation Matters 2025 conference to life has been a journey that has taken many months and has been the result of collaboration across the entire organisation.
The conference, held on Wednesday, July 30 and Thursday, July 31 at the ICC Sydney, was testament to the saying “it takes a village” involving contributions from almost every department across NATA – Accreditation Services, Operations, IT Department, Strategy and Business, Stakeholder, People and Marketing teams.
Having the overall responsibility within NATA for delivering this initiative has been a most rewarding experience.
What began as an idea a few years ago to showcase “why accreditation matters” and create visibility for NATA and the work our important organisation does, has grown and grown into a bold, collective endeavour to create something bigger, better, and more visible – a national platform for technical excellence, policy dialogue, and the future of accreditation and conformity assessment in Australia.
Accreditation Matters 2025 was also an investment in connection – supporting deeper engagement with NATA’s Member organisations, Technical Assessors, and key stakeholders from across industry, Government and regulators.
It was a chance to demonstrate relevance, strengthen relationships, and build shared capability across our technical community including our Australian Technical Infrastructure Alliance partners – Standards Australia, the National Measurement Institute (NMI) and the Joint Accreditation System of Australia and New Zealand (JASANZ).
The impact and the results speak for themselves. More than 500 delegates registered to attend. Record-breaking interest from sponsors and a broad range of exhibitors. A packed program agenda with over 70+ content-rich sessions across multiple streams. 100+ speakers sharing their insights with thought-provoking presentations and panel discussions. Everywhere you looked there were conversations about accreditation, standards, measurement and testing. During the breaks and at the NATA Celebration Dinner, networking saw relationships re-kindled and new ones forged. The buzz across the two days was palpable.
Just as NATA is part of the “hidden safety net” keeping all Australians safe every day, so too was there a hidden NATA team working behind the scenes to deliver our Accreditation Matters 2025 conference – from strategic planning to speaker and session curation, from securing sponsors to managing logistics and promoting our event to secure registrations.
At the core of this effort sits a carefully structured internal governance model. Six dedicated project teams – Steering, Content, Celebration Dinner, Marketing, Sponsorship and Logistics – each made up of passionate NATA staff, have helped shape every element of the experience.
Each person’s contribution has played a part to build this gathering brick by brick, as has the additional NATA staff who volunteered to help at the event – as room MCs, room producers, registration desk staff, on the Ask NATA desk, as room ushers, speaker wranglers, talent minders, merchandise bag packers or any other job that we required.
They all went above and beyond, their passion, dedication and support for each other no matter what the task to make our event a success was just amazing to witness – it was collaboration personified. Of course there are also many learnings – we know we can improve and we will.
If you had the chance to attend Accreditation Matters 2025, I hope, like me, you had a fantastic and valuable experience. If not, we look forward to seeing you at our next event, because having you there matters.